


Midnight Love

by the_gay_empath



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Adora is missing for a while, Anxiety, Catra has two moms, Catra is a baddie but what's new, Cheerleader Catra, Debate Student Catra, Everyone has parents, Everyone has parents in this AU, Everyone is PoC, F/F, History Student Adora, Human Catra (She-Ra), No cliques in this AU, Positive Female Friendships, mild depression, slowburn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:47:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25039480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_gay_empath/pseuds/the_gay_empath
Summary: Catra has been going to the Frightzone ever since she was twelve years old. She along several other students have been groomed, gaslighted, and guilted into working for the school's illegal activity for years without the student's parents having any idea what was going on. It's been two years since her moms pulled her out of the school, and shut it down. Two years since she started her new life at Brightmoon... and several, several years since she last saw... her.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Lonnie & Mermista (She-Ra), Scorpia/Perfuma
Comments: 11
Kudos: 25





	Midnight Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."- Seneca

### Scorpia

10:25 am

All three of the trio couldn’t wait to get  
out class for the day, but the day literally just started. They’re on their third period? Fourth?. This day is going to be a long one.  
  
Scorpia could care less about whatever the teacher _ranting- _(__ teaching) about this time. Like, damn can this dude be any more microaggressive? He looks to be about fifty, sixty years old? He seems to have never left his hometown and is not so subtle about being scared of brown people. _That_ is hilarious. He keeps going on and on about how the country has gone to shit and how _t_ _hese people_ are terrorizing his country, you know- very us vs them shit.

Honestly, where is Catra?. She would’ve been halfway through with grilling the fuck out of this dude by now-.

Scorpia turned around to see Catra jotting down notes, and a mix of highlighters, a mess of candy wrappers, and a leftover coffee cup by her laptop. Probably for her debate class. She might have fun being a teenager and being more educated than a grown-ass adult with some serious ulterior motive issues but probably doesn’t care enough to cost her, you know? her grade. Her mess of curls are swooped up into a tight knot above her head with wisps peeking out of her ponytail and brows are furrowed in concentration. Yea...the best option is probably to not bother her right now. But it’s so boring here. It might be boring, but she does have a lot to do today. Maybe she’ll start from there..

Scorpia started to write down in her notebook.

_OK, first, Perfuma said she needed my help with unloading the new flower pots coming in today. There’s a lot apparently and it’s April so, it’s the best time to start growing the plants._

_OH- I also wanted to go to the shelters today and do some volunteer work. There are new animals that came in and that I’m definitely going to try to bring some home once I get my license. Perfuma already barely tolerates all the new animals that I bring over sometimes, not getting into the fact that she got really mad when a kitten I was babysitting knocked over her flowerpots. But she knew what she was getting into the moment she told me about shelters so this one’s on her. And I..._

Scorpia quickly got bored of writing and started doodling again. Then her thoughts wandered off. You know, it’s funny. Back when she was in the fright zone, it never even came across her mind of a life beyond what she was being groomed for. Of course-, the Fright Zone shut down after it’s rigorously dangerous ideals and the blatant grooming of students. The way they worked students to death, the way they were always told they were never going to amount to as much as what they’re going to grow up to be, the way the held students in captivity with threats of blackmail and threats of violence, was all found and exposed. They’ve come a long way since escaping the ideals of the life laid out in front of them. 

They were really going to be workers.

Basically slaves.

In these factories that will barely pay them. As teachers to other students, feeding them the same propaganda they grew up being groomed with. As security guards to doors and doors of ischemic, illegal activity. Scorpia grimaced at the thought. They were barely given or educated on career choices or what they even meant. And for a very long time, they didn’t know what life was like outside of that building.

But Brightmoon changed everything. It changed her world view and made her think of possibilities. Endless horizons of places she could end up. The things she could do, what she could say. It was all more open for once. For the first time in years she wasn't bound to do what was given to her on a piece of paper that was utilized to control her life for 356 days, but she was bound to make her own choices, her own mistakes, her own... destiny.

They were to be kids again and dig out from all those years of captivity and be more … free. It’s been going amazing so far.

Well, for the most part. It still has racist teachers and some prissy ass rich white kids but, for the most part, she’s been _happy_. 

She met her amazing girlfriend, who, has been such a positive influence on her life, she picked up on learning about animals and studying them, which is something she’s always wanted to do, she’s built a literal jungle out of their treehouse with her girlfriend consisting of vines, different types of exotic plants, and animals. Lots and lots of animals and most importantly, her friends are happy.

And Scorpia knows she’s not supposed to put other people’s happiness above her own or have that be the reason for her happiness, but she has plenty of other reasons to be happy and this happens to be one of them. And at least she’s choosing to do it this time. And not out of you know… obligation. She’s really lucky.

Most of the student’s parents didn’t even know what was going on until government administration came in to do an evaluation. How they were able to past tests from the IBU for almost 30 years, is anyone’s guess. But the day they were found out? _Oh, that day was chaos._

  
Student’s parents were finally informed about why their children’s behavior has changed so drastically over the past few years, parents were planning on filing lawsuits for contempt and psychological damage of their children but to no avail. And kids were saying goodbye to each other, not yet understanding why they were being pulled out. 

Although it took months, and months of court heated battles and a massive and critic search for evidence for said claims, (they apparently created an underground safe system just in case they were caught for their illegal activity which made finding evidence a lot harder,) it got shut down. All thanks to… Catra’s moms. Man.

Catra’s moms held the whole trial on their backs. Everyone was informed of the school shutting down a lot earlier and were able to unenroll their children and they tried to go up against the school in lawsuit battles but couldn’t do anything at the risk of their children, but Catra was one of the last ones to get out. And Catra’s moms weren’t going to hold back after what their daughter has been through. Scorpia got out a lot earlier and was getting the help she needed. And Catra was still going there. 

But whenever she could, Scorpia tried to convince Catra to tell her moms at the time and get her to leave. But she was far too gone to listen. There was no way she could’ve gotten in contact with her moms because they were so busy at the time. So much was going on at the time and there was no way to get in contact with either of them.

But. 

But? 

But after learning about how much their daughter was affected, about how long Catra continued to go to that school, _that place,_ without them knowing, about how much Catra suffered at the hands of a school they spent years putting their trust in, they were willing to go far and beyond. 

They were able to get half of the staff jailed and the money they got back from the lawsuits were dedicated to getting the former students therapy and a chance at new schools. 

It’s been shut for about 3 years now.

Some students got out earlier than others. Some of them just- couldn’t heal while still being in this town and had to move. Some had to take a year off of school to recover mentally. And the rest were given a free ride to Brightmoon and received free counseling. When Scorpia’s moms found out, they didn’t hesitate to unenroll her from the school and get her a therapist right away.

Scorpia’s moms didn’t have up the momentum to go up against such an intense organization and their main priority was keeping their daughter safe. And after months of intense therapy sessions and months of mal-induced breakdowns and identity crises, Scorpia was on her way to Brightmoon.

The transition was really hard at first. 

It ate at her soul every moment she laughed or made a new friend without Catra being there. Catra and the rest of her friends were still there at the time. Scorpia’s moms found out well before the administration exposed the school’s illegal activity. So she was able to leave earlier. The same goes for Entrapta. So she at least had someone there to lean on. Someone she recognized and loved. But her other friends were still stuck there...

Her girlfriend told her it was only a matter of time before they left too. That she shouldn’t have to torture every inch of herself with that amount of worry. But it didn’t matter. It didn’t make her feel better and it didn’t change the fact that they were still there. The ones that stayed longest, (Catra) got hit the most. She just- couldn’t leave. Couldn’t tell anyone and refused to tell anyone because she didn’t want to believe. Believe what Scorpia’s been telling her. She couldn’t fathom that something she put years of her life into, all the nights of pain and suffering, the nights she spent digging at her scalp trying to stay awake to turn in rigorous assignments, eyes filled with tears and every inch of her body being exhausted, the physical exertion. The scars. The trauma. The years of walls built nights of silence?

It couldn’t have all been to use her. Right? The fact of it was rudimentary that her moms didn't know for all those years. How well was she at hiding this? How well was she at putting up a brave face? Her moms would been able to figure it out right? Her moms..

Her moms are the most caring and kind human beings she’s come across in her 16 years of living. Amazing people. But their workload slowly took over their lives for way too long that they didn’t even notice that Catra’s eventual years of isolation.

Pham is a pediatrician and Pelumi is a lawyer. So it’s evitable that they won’t be having as much downtime as they pursue to have. As they _tried_ to have. But whenever they did, whenever they were able to have Scorpia over, whenever they were able to just take a break from being the world’s badass women, they just- chilled out and be moms, it was so wholesome. Embarrassing the hell out of Catra when Scorpia was over and laughing at the teenager’s stupid decisions when watching Netflix teen dramas.

Pelumi getting furious at Entrapta when playing board games because she’s always one step ahead. Pham calling every rule in the game a lie because she’s so close to losing. Being their normal, goofy competitive selves. Every time she came over, and it was a place of just- so much sass and love.

Her thoughts always goes back to the house... that house always smelt so good. The amount of food she had every time left her stomach aching every time she left. Even when she’s about to leave, she’s supplied with bags and bags of leftover food. And Pham signified plates so she’ll notice her plates and take them back whenever she comes to visit Scorpia’s moms. Zzz

Not without a slight passive-aggressive comment of course.

From the crunch of Pelumi’s delicious empanadas to the melting hot plates of Chiles en nogada, it was always good. Even getting occasional permission from Pham to wear traditional Vietnamese clothing (ao dai ), and being taught how to do the makeup, you know... not being taught by “ pasty white girls on instagram” as Pham likes to put it, it was always fun.

But because of their workload… their careers, these things just stopped happening. Less time to host their manual gatherings and to be themselves. Less time to notice the changes in their daughter’s behavior. Less time for Catra…

Catra was never one to be blatantly honest about her feelings. Even before she was enrolled at the Frightzone at 12 years old. She was never the one. 

Starting all the way from being the kid on the playground into puberty.

It was something she never grew out of and the fact she was in that kind of environment at those years of development, you can say it fucked her up. 

But... but she’s really come a long way. Her darkest moments were way back when she was still in the Frightzone. Scorpia was there through all the black, white, and grey areas in her road to recovery. That’s a journey she had to go on too. But she really is a lot happier now. More like the Catra she used to know. Well, for the most part. I mean the Catra she used to know was also simping for-

. . .

Something hits her back of her head.

“ _What the-_ ” Scorpia looks down at what just hit her and it was a crumpled up piece of paper. She looked behind her in the direction the note came from and it was Catra sitting behind her. She was looking off into the distance but with a frown on her face. She always looked so serious when she’s zoned out. Scorpia picked up the note.

_“ Are you ok?”._

At the side of the words, she doodled what seemed to be baby cows. Damn, they were distorted, but she knew how much liked them.

She smiled. This was so considerate of her. But- on the other hand... She wanted to know how long she was willing to drag this one out. Catra always seems to catch on when she’s going off into oblivion with her thoughts. She’s pretty familiar with them too. It was something they always seemed to balance each other in. It was a survival instinct they adapted after… you know...

But... Catra was petty with it. She’d ask hypothetical questions about how she was feeling-, or would occasionally ask who she had to beat up randomly and would ask on certain occasions …would ask if she did anything wrong.

During Catra’s recovery period, she wasn’t that nice. Well, nice is a _nice_ way to put it. She wasn’t that big on straying away from the almost, cult-like ideals and morals the Frightzone ingrained in her for years. It was like she was still in shock. So? She lashed out. Not stopping until she drew everyone away. Even Scorpia. And since this was Scorpia’s recovery journey as well, she couldn’t go on trying to set herself on fire to warm up Catra. After months and months of therapy and time to reflect, ground, and find herself again, Catra was finally ready for a talk.

A phone call. That single phone call brought down all Scorpia’s walls of lowkey resentment, those months of painful silence and Catra’s trying to find the right words to say, had them both sobbing uncontrollably for hours. From then on came road to, well… rebuilding her friendships.

Making an effort to reach out to the people she drove away in an effort of staying locked in. It’s been almost 2 years since Catra gave her that call and started going to Brightmoon. Catra is always trying to make sure she’s doing the right thing from on. Doing the most to right her wrongs. Yesterday, it was making these cookies? 

Like-, she can hardly call them cookies, they looked horrid- ( probably has something to do with Entrapta helping) but they tasted amazing. Probably noted from her mom’s baking skills. And now it’s notes. Hmmm well? Well-

Scorpia can be petty too. She thinks? She never really tried it and honestly, it doesn’t work that well for her. She’s tried a lot of things over the past few months and this one- this one just isn’t for her.

She turned around again and this time Catra was looking at her with like- intent. By her, were crumpled up pieces of paper and candy wrappers. And gel pens? Catra only used those when things while doodling and needed to outline something. Said people who used those for writing regularly were “ serial killers”. Yea.. this whole being petty thing isn’t working-. Catra’s just too cute.

Scorpia pulled out a sheet of paper. 

_"Yea, I'm fine. Just wanna get outta here. And look you... not being emo for once :)"_

She slid it down gently on the table behind her and decided to catch up on whatever was left of the lesson. Another crumpled piece of paper flew at her head.

“Wildcat- will you cut that out? And why do you have to _crumple up_ the paper-” Scorpia turned around to Catra’s shit-eating grin.

“ Look at the notes dude”. Catra said with a mischievous look in her eyes.

Scorpia pondered for a moment.

“No, Wildcat we need to pay attention.” said Scorpia.

“Scorp, I’ve actually been paying attention this whole time. Do you even know what dude-bro was talking about teaching this whole time?.” Scorpia narrows her eyes at her.

“ No, you haven’t and It’s Mr. Ranger-”

“ Yea… I’m not calling him that. But also, you forgot that this class is child’s play- it’s basically pointless and only here for college credits.” Catra responded.

“ But do you have to throw the notes at me? Or crumble them? You know we have a group chat right?

“ My phone is dead”

“ Right… ok.” Scorpia said, not believing her.

“ _AHEM,_ ” The teacher interrupted the two, and Scorpia waved over a ‘sorry’ while quickly putting down Catra’s middle finger.

“ But like, are you ok? Like, do you have a headache or something?” Catra asked.

“I’m fine, this class is just really boring. And,we need to stop talking before we get in trouble..Stop throwing paper before Mr Ranger,-”

“Ahem, dudebro- ahem” Catra coughed.

“... gives us detention”. Scorpia finished.

Entrapta, who has been nonchalantly listening from across from the duo and writing what seems to be a formula on her phone below her desk, decides to finally join in on the conversation. Well- writing a formula that’s definitely not this class. All three of them can collectively agree that this class is shit.

“ Scorpia has a point,” Entrapta stated.

“ Why, thank you.” Scorpia enthusiastically.

“ But Catra did- doodle the cute baby cows.” Entrapta, eyes scrunched up in serious decision.

“HA,- nice backup Entrapta.” Catra said while sneaking a glare at Scorpia.

“ But objectively... they’re pretty ugly.”

“ Wha-” Catra begins to say while Scorpia snickers in the background.

Entrapta picks up the crumpled up notes and observes them. Then a big smile fell on her face.

“ But they’re so _tiny_ and _cute_ and they remind me of my boyfriend’s-”

Catra starts gagging from across from her and Scorpia starts snickering. Then they both fell into overflowing laughter that gets them glares from the other students. And from the teacher. Who honestly, is just fed up with their shit.

“ Trapta, no offense-,” Scorpia tries to catch her breath and wipe away excess tears from her eyes.

“Full offense.” Catra cuts in.

“ He’s a kind of skumbag.” Scorpia said.

“ _Kind of?_ -” Catra said with a grin, one that she knows pisses people off.

"Hey- be nice Catra, I mean, he has some… nice qualities.”

“ Like what?” Catra maciously sweetly.

“ _Nice qualities._ ” Scorpia said with a forced grin.

“ While I’d love to sit here listen to you guys shit on my boyfriend,”

Catra snickers. “ He looks like one of the elves from one of those Disney movies you forced me to watch a few weeks ago.”

“ Wildcat that’s mean. But it’s also true.”

Scorpia and Catra high fived while Entrapta semi- squinted and brought her glasses back up to her face.

Entrapta sternly looked back and forth between the two and they flinched because they were trying to figure which one of them is gonna be choking on rat experiments in their next takeout.

" _Anyway,_ I was wondering what plans we had for the day? I was thinking of finishing the formulas for my project so I can get started on it soon.”

“ Oh, you mean the first one’s project? I thought you were already done with that.”

“ OH- Yes I did, but I just need to make another version of the one I already finished to prove my hypothesis.”

Scorpia thought for a moment. She might have forgotten what Entrapta’s hypothesis was, but to be fair, this wasn’t the first project Entrapta had told her about this week. Or the second. Or third.

“ I’m building different models but they all have one thing in common.”

“ First one’s tech?” Scorpia and Catra answered nonchalantly at the same time.

“ It’s first tec- Yea!!

“ The technology at its core. It’s… incredibly powerful. Reducing home energy use through measures such as insulation, the better energy efficiency of appliances, cool roofs, heat reflective paints, lowering water heater temperature, and improving heating and cooling efficiency can significantly reduce an individual’s carbon footprint. I’ve used it for almost everything in my house and my data shows a significant change in the effects of global warming. I just need to be able to convince the environmental science industry to give me a chance.”

“That is fucking badass. I mean-, your house looks like it came out of the future. The problem is-” Catra pops another piece of candy into her mouth.

“ It’s a male-dominated industry, Entrapta. They’re probably not going take you as seriously as the suburban white dude using an outdated 2005 adobe system.”

“ I know- I… have experience with the only brown girl at conventions, meet and greets and being confused for the waiter when I make lively working _robots_ that wipes off the floor everytime-, which _isn’t_ the best. Or just a girl in general. But this could change everything. I’ve been using this system since I was a kid and I’ve seen nothing but the improvement you know? I just need the right people to look at it, or in this case, approve it. The world could really start looking different that way.”

“I know, Entrapta, I just want you to be careful. It’s gonna be a lot hard for you to climb up the ranks you know?”

Catra brushed back some of her curls out of her face.

“You have to work towards it. Not all of us are born lucky. You know? Trust me.”

“ Look, I got this. I’ve been doing research for years and I’mam natural prodigy so I’ll be fine.”

Catra threw a piece of paper at Entrapta erupting a giggle from her.

“ Hey-, don’t get _cocky._ ”

“ To be honest, everyone here at Brighmoon is some kind of prodigy-,” Scorpia added in while doodling something on the side of her notebook.

“ _AHEM_.->" The teacher spoke up again.

You three, Scorpia, Catra, and Entrapta. I’d suggest that if you three don’t want detention or unfortunate changes to your grade, I’d probably be in your best interest to pay attention to whatever is left of this class. There is 15 minutes left of this hour so I’m pretty sure you can calm your tits until long enough to get through this ‘oh so boring’ class. We can all hear you. And we don’t give a shit. I don’t give a damn. I’ve been doing this job for 15 years and _you_ people can’t-”

Catra and Scorpia collectively sighed and started zoning because this isn’t the first time they heard this speech. Or the last time they’ll be hearing it. Entrapta went back to typing out her formulas and Catra decides to take a power nap while the teacher keeps ranting. Most of the kids in the class all seem to have fallen asleep and some of them even just- walked out. 

This is hilarious-. Scorpia wonders how long it’ll take for this one to quit. Probably a few more weeks- depending on how well he gets paid. But knowing the sheer power these three, they’re probably going to quit very, very soon. 

They’re definitely _not_ going to start being quiet and definitely isn’t going to try to. And Scorpia knows that objectively, that’s a pretty mean thing to do. But in all honesty, this dude is lowkey misogynistic. And a prick. And kind of has a vendetta against brown people. So fuck this ‘dude-bro’ as Catra says it. Eh… It sounds better coming from Catra. Oh and also,

Fuck this class.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!! My name is Melody, but you can call me Mel~ and I'm a new fic writer. This is going to be an on-going fic and long fic, so you're in for a ride. Please leave a comment if you liked it and we can all just-vibe and chill over the characters I created :) ENJOY!!
> 
> Next Chapter is coming very, very soon. Bye for now!!


End file.
